Improvement in railway-switches



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEo NATHAN F. CARTER, OF ORFORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY-SWITCHES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 155,637, dated October6, 1874; application filed July 18, 1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, NATHAN F. CARTER, of Orford, in the county ofGrafton and State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and ImprovedAutomatic Switch, of which the following is a specification:

The object of the invention is to cause the switch to be automaticallyshifted in advance of the engine by a device on the engine under thecontrol of the engineer. i

The invention will first be fully described, and then pointed out in theclaims.

Figure l is a plan view of a section of railway-track and a switch,showing my improved autonatic shifting apparatus. Fig. 2 is a transversesection taken on .the line @c ac of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a transversesection taken on the line y y.

Similar letters of reference indicate correspondingparts.

A and A represent the two partsYV of the main line; B, the switch-rails,`and .C the branch rails. The switch -rails B are connected to theswitch-bar D, to which is applied a toothed rack, E, with which asegmental wheel, F, pivoted at G, gears to shift the switch-railsforward and backwarch'the said wheel being geared with the toothed bar Hfor being turned. by it. This bar extends along thel track each way fromthe switch a suitable distance for being worked by the locomotive toshift the switch in advance of the locomotive, and it gears at each endwith up'- right shafts J J and K K by means of toothed wheels L and M.At one end it gears directly with the wheel of one of the uprights, andwith the other upright by a single intermediate wheel,'and at the otherend one intermediate wheel is used on one side and two on the other.These arrangements are required by the necessity of the wheels of theuprights being all the same size, and the shafts the same distance fromthe rails, and by reason of the gears having to work reversely to eachother at the opposite'ends. Each upright has an arm, N, with one ofwhich a cam, O, on

the car P is to come in contact asit advances toward the switch to setthe bar H in motion for shifting the switch.

The cam will, in practice, be a double inclined projection for actinggradually on the arms, but it may be of any approved form. There is oneon each side of the locomotive, and they are arranged on a rock-shaft,Q, which extends to the end of thecar, and gears by toothed segmentswith a hand-lever, R, by which to be thrown down out of theway of thearms when not to be allowed to act on them and raised up to act.

The switch-bar D carries a locking-bolt, S, which is to drop into one ofthe holes T immediately after the rails B have been shifted to hold themfast while the cars pass, anda cam, U, is applied to the wheel F in suchmanner that, by swinging under the doubleinclined head W of the saidbolt at the beginning of each movement, it will lift the bolt out andfree the switch.

The arms N will be xed adjustably on the shafts, so that they can beshifted to any required position for being in the path of the cams onthe locomotive. The arrangement will be such that the cam on thelocomotive for causing the switch to shift will be on the same side thetrain is to turn by the switch.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patentl. The long bar H,havingrack on both sides of each endand intermediately on the inner side, in combination with mechanismoperated at each end from the car, and mechanism in the middle operatingthe bar D by rack and pinion E F, as shown and described, for thepurpose specified.

2. The automatic locking-bolt S and unlock ing-cam U, combined with theswitch-bar D, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

NATHAN F. CARTER.

Witnesses:

ROYAL BEAL, J osEPHINE J. BEAL.

